Spring Fever was alive and well in fifth grade today! I must admit that I had a touch of it myself, especially with the sunny warm day we had! Despite the drifting attention of my fabulous fifth graders, we managed to get everything important accomplished today.

Focus Study & Research: We checked in on our project plans. Everyone seems to have a good idea of what they'd like to work on. It would be fine to get started over Spring Break, but we have a couple of weeks left after we get back for the kids to work on the projects at home. We will have a 30 minute block in the computer lab on April 10th, and also some time to ask Mrs. Kindschy for some help with technology questions. We created clay models of the digestive systems today. Most everyone was pretty confident with the parts and their functions. This is GREAT preparation for our dissections!

Logical Thinking: The kids begged me for a logic puzzle, so they got to choose one from their frog packet. They'll finish those next class.

Divergent & Evaluative Thinking: The kids designed a "Flycatcher", in honor of our frogs. They created an advertisement and a 30 second commercial. Then the kids evaluated each creation. We'll share the comments next class. We watched a short video about creating computer games that also discusses the importance of specific feedback. Check it out: Game Based Learning.

HW: Journal about your Spring Break and begin working on (or at least planning out) your frog project. Bring your journal to class on April 10th. HAVE FUN!

Creative/Divergent Thinking: We shared our solutions for the character problems from our book Ungifted. I haven't laughed so hard in quite a while--costumes, parachuting, singing, stability balls turned into Atlas' earth! Wow!

Focus Study: We reviewed frog anatomy with a couple of dissection videos and then recorded the functions of each organ. View the videos anytime for a good review!

Research: First, we reviewed our project rubric. Look for that to come home today. Here's a copy, just in case you need it.

We continued our work with Mrs. Kindschy by learning about web-based applications that could help us create a unique and exciting project to showcase our research. Check out the Frog Glog for an overview of the apps we explored.

Novel Study:We read a couple of chapters in Ungifted.This lead to a great discussion about why we have gifted education and what can happen when you aren't in an appropriate learning environment. The kids shared some very insightful comments. They always rise to the occasion when we talk about affective issues in giftedness!

With Mr. Morris' class gone to Jekyll Island, our Target class was pretty small today! We enjoyed the change of pace and got SO much done today! For those kids on the trip, no worries. We've planned to help you get caught up on Frog Stuff next week!

We watched two dissection videos from the Target Glog, Frog Glog and labeled our new frog dissection diagrams. Good work on this today! We'll label functions of the organs together next week.

We also enjoyed exercising our creativity and divergent thinking by using unusually named frogs as starring characters in comic strips. Can't wait to share those next week!

We enjoyed learning about the MANY apps available to help us with our frog projects. Try some out and really plan out what you may want to use for your project. Remember, you should be getting your research done as we go along. You should have your research questions answered and note-taking completed by March 27th. Project contracts/rubrics will be reviewed and signed on March 27th. Projects will be presented on April 24th and May 1st.Here is the document to list your research sources:/uploads/2/1/9/6/21968444/electronic_sources_location_and_access.docxHW: St. Patrick's Day Logic Puzzle, Frog research

Today was filled with divergent thinking! That is after all, why we all belong in the gifted classroom--our divergence!

A simple discussion about the digestive organs of the frog turned to topics such as what happens when you eat asparagus (The kids may try this one soon.) to the ethics of animal research, to organ transplants, to medical ethics, to domination of human culture over animals. Phew!!! It was a lot to wade through in less than an hour. Not all of that was intentional, but the kids ask AMAZING questions. They genuinely want to wade into these ambiguous gray areas and want our support along the way. I'm proud that they're unafraid of the ambiguity. I encouraged them to pursue these issues in their adult work, if they are passionate about them.

We continued our journey down Divergent Drive with a fluency and originality exercise: "Things that vanish". The responses were really unusual and interesting like: sympathy, good health, tasty food, ideas, etc.

Our trek to Divergent Land extended to a creative problem solving activity using our book Ungifted. The kids identified the major characters and a problem for each of them. The task was to come up with a creative solution to the character's problem. Solutions could be presented in any format. So far, we had a clay sculpture, and 2 skits. After all the writing they've done lately, it was great to see other ways to bring ideas to life! I can't wait to see the rest of the solutions. I hear there's at least one song!

We also watched an episode of the movie, Silverwing. You may remember this story from the Bats unit of several years ago. The kids made many good connections between the bats and frogs, survival of animals, and even our novel, Ungifted. That is fantastic!

The final activity was a session in the library with Mrs. Kindschy. The kids worked on note taking for their research.

HW: Google Doc 4. Students should have at least 3-5 solid sources by next week.